Reading time: About 1.5 minutes
I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about two similes from American writer and psychologist Dan Shapiro….
I recently finished the marvellous non-fiction book Delivering Doctor Amelia by Dan Shapiro. A psychologist, the author describes his treatment of an obstetrician. But here’s the catch: she becomes suicidal after a baby she’s delivered develops cerebral palsy. Perhaps this is just me, but I found the book as riveting as a thriller and I finished it in a day and a half.
The author, who specializes in treating physicians, comes across as not just smart, but also caring and empathetic. He’s able to make connections that help his patient — an excellent doctor — recover her self-respect.
Shapiro is also a very fine writer. In an early section of the book, in which he recalls his own youth, he describes a teacher (Ms Pearlman) trying to persuade a particularly shy student to respond in class. Here is the paragraph:
Ms Pearlman prodded Lauren a few times to repeat herself until her voice was loud enough to be heard beyond her own desk, and then Ms. Pearlman stopped pacing. She smiled directly at Lauren, as if they had shared a private confidence. We all looked from one to the other, as if we were at a tennis match, before Ms. Pearlman went back to her pacing.
I really like the two similes here: as if they had shared a private confidence and as if we were at a tennis match. They take me right back to my own school days where I can recall teachers restlessly pacing the room, desperately trying to engage with students who steadfastly resisted. I’ve seen tennis matches, exactly like this one, myself.
